By Dee Tadlock, Ph.D.

I don’t understand it, complained fouryear-old Heather’s dad. “Heather was so keen on learning to read when I first started teaching her to ‘sound out’ words. Now she never wants to work with me and gets upset if I try to talk her into it.” What happened? Why did Heather lose interest?

Reading specialists have assumed for 150 years that figuring out what each individual word is constitutes the foundational skill for reading development—the skill upon which every other aspect of reading is based. Well-meaning early childhood educators and parents accept this assumption and work diligently to impart the skill.

What Heather could not explain is that her brain knew that “sounding out,” or decoding was not working as a strategy for reading, and it didn’t know what else to do. Out of frustration, it chose abandonment. What  could Heather’s brain have done instead if the environment provided by her dad had been different? It could have figured out what the main event of reading really is: anticipating the author’s message.

You can’t directly teach young children to anticipate meaning as they read. Learning “how to” things (howto ride a bike, how to walk,  how to talk, etc.) happens below the level of conscious awareness and needs to be learned implicitly. In past columns, I used bicycle riding as an example of  implicit learning. When your child learned to ride a bicycle, her brain figured out what to do to keep her upright  and moving smoothly forward. Both of you were aware of her performance consistently improving,  but neither of you knew what her brain was doing to make it happen. That’s because learning “how to” things happens below the level of  conscious awareness, or implicitly.

No one has access to or control over what the brain does to make bicycle riding, reading, or any other process happen. However,  brains are remarkably adept at figuring out such things on their own. They do it  through interaction with the environment. The brain asks itself, “What do I have to do to ride this bicycle?” It  then designs and conducts an experiment designed to result in upright  and smoothly moving, forward bicycle  riding. When the experiment fails (your child crashes), the brain analyzes the result of the experiment  and asks, “How might I change what I just did so bicycle riding happens?” The brain continuously conducts new experiments, persistently adjusting  what it is doing, until it finally figures out how to keep the body upright  and smoothly moving forward on the bicycle.

Process learning is dependent upon interaction with the environment, and the nature of the interaction will determine what is learned. If you  want to ensure that your child will not have a reading problem, you need to provide the kind of environment  that supports the brain’s attempts to figure out how to anticipate meaning. This is in addition to helping your child develop a concept of excellent reading and establishing strong intent to figure out the process (as we discussed  in last month’s column).  Highly predictable books are the tools to use as you provide the right environment for your child. Read the following straight through and without looking back so that you can experience how using these books will enable your child to anticipate meaning.

Freddy the frog sat by a pond.
Along came a cat.
“Meow!” said the cat.
Freddie tried to meow.
“Frogs can’t meow,” said the cat.
“Only cats can meow.”

Along came a cow.
“Moo!” said the cow.
Freddie tried to moo.
“Frogs can’t moo,” said the cow.
“Only cows can moo.”

Along _________ lion.
“Roar!” ____________.
Freddie ____________.
“Frogs _________,” said _____.
“Only ____________.”

A__n_ ____________ dog.
“Bark!” s__d _____________.
Freddie ______________.
“__________,” _______.
“________________.”

Freddy the Frog by Rose Greydanus
Troll Associates, 1980

The book is inherently predictable because of the repetitive pattern of the narration. If you read it to your child many times and then invite her to read parts of it as you pause expectantly, she will soon be able to read the entire book. Say things like, “Do you want to read the next page? I’ll help you,” or “’Bark!’ said…[and then pause].” If you don’t get a response, ask, “Who would be barking?” When your child answers, “The dog,” say, “Yes! Now you read it.” If your child doesn’t chime right in, finish reading the sentence yourself.

As soon as your child can comfortably read one highly predictable book, introduce her to another one. Always read it to her several times before you invite her participation. You will find that she will jump in spontaneously sometimes, and other times she may not. Don’t apply pressure for her to engage in reading all or parts of the book. Follow her lead.

It is important as you work with your child that you never call her attention to individual words by pointing or encouraging any kindof “sounding out” activity. This is because the focus for the brain as it reads is not on the words. It is on using a predictive strategy to accurately  construct the author’s message.

Remember, you cannot teach your child to anticipate the meaning be- cause doing so happens below the level of conscious awareness. Interacting with her using highly predictable books provides the environment in which her brain will spontaneously anticipate the meaning. Your job is to engage your child in activities with the book that enhance the predictability of the text. This will inevitably result in her experimenting with anticipation of meaning as a strategy for reading.

You may be thinking, “Won’t my child just be memorizing the text? How is that going to help her learn to read?” She may be memorizing the text, but strike the word just. Memorizing and reading are “first cousins” because both require anticipating the meaning. The difference is that something that is memorized is one hundred percent predictable, and something that is being read is not. So, if your child is reciting, celebrate! It tells you that she is beginning to implicitly understand that her job as a reader is to use a predictive strategy to anticipate the meaning.

About the Author:
Dee Tadlock, Ph.D. is the founder of Read Right Systems in Shelton, WA and primary author of the book Read Right! Coaching Your Child to Excellence in Reading. www.ReadRight.com

May 2007